The airship hovers near the ground during tethered flight testing on Saturday, September 7, 2013 (Photo: Aeros)

The ground control team monitors progress as the Aeroscraft airship hovers nearby (Photo: Aeros)

The giant Aeroscraft airship is nearing the time when it leaves the ground for untethered flight. The company says first flight will be "very soon" (Photo: Aeros)

The airship clearly shows the four landing pads. The two small side engines are tilted up in the takeoff position, and an engine in the tail helps with control. The crew sit in the small gondola in the center of the ship (Photo: Aeros)

Still attached to tethers, the Aeroscraft prototype lifts a short way into the sky as pre-flight testing continues on the ground-breaking airship (Photo: Aeros)

The large silver airship harkens back to an earlier day when giant airships glided gracefully through the skies. This is the first flying fully-rigid airship since the 1940's (Photo: Aeros)

After a 70-year absence, it appears that a new rigid frame airship will soon be taking to the skies over California. Aeros Corporation, a company based near San Diego, has received experimental airworthiness certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to begin flight testing the Aeroscraft airship and, as these new photographs of the airship undergoing tethered testing show, the company has wasted no time in getting started.